Previous Year Question

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was one of the most celebrated saints of the Chishti Sufi order in India. He is also popularly known as Gharib Nawaz, and Ajmer subsequently became his principal spiritual centre.

During his early life, he travelled through different regions in search of religious and spiritual learning. During these travels, he came into contact with the distinguished Chishti Sufi saint Khwaja Usman Haruni.

Moinuddin Chishti accepted Usman Haruni as his Pir or spiritual master. He remained with him for several years and received training in Sufi discipline, self-restraint and the spiritual teachings of the Chishti tradition.

Usman Haruni eventually initiated him into the Chishti silsila. Thus, in the spiritual chain of the Chishti order, Moinuddin Chishti became an important link after Usman Haruni.

A major disciple of Moinuddin Chishti was Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki. The same Chishti tradition subsequently passed through figures such as Baba Farid and Nizamuddin Auliya.

The sequence can therefore be remembered as—

Usman Haruni → Moinuddin Chishti → Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki → Baba Farid → Nizamuddin Auliya

Among the other options, Shah Waliullah and Mir Dard belonged to much later periods and therefore could not have been the spiritual masters of Moinuddin Chishti.